charles stross "halting state"

Neal Stephenson Anathem. I am just about to start the 4th (I think) chapter, Anathem. I'm about 200 pages in and the pace is still rather slow, but it's intriguing enough to keep me going.

Just started this one:

finished The Blessing by Nancy Mitford.. enjoyed the three novels I ready by her in September hugely. Was dissapointed to finish them.

Now reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Only 3 chapters in, but enjoying it so far. I've read Remains of the Day, and Once were Orphans, and they're totally different from each other, and this seems totally different yet again.

Nearly done with Van Reid's Fiddler's Green. Great dry humor. Still figuring out what to tackle next.

within the last 200 pages of "Underworld" by Don DeLillo, and am fakkin' amazed at the talent this guy has.

Watchmen.

I've been studying my copy too.

quote:

Originally posted by Kradlum:
Neal Stephenson Anathem. I am just about to start the 4th (I think) chapter, Anathem. I'm about 200 pages in and the pace is still rather slow, but it's intriguing enough to keep me going.

I'm almost halfway through. It got easier just a bit past where you are. Suddenly my mind kinda flipped into the world he created. Put it down for the night and when I next picked it up, it was all just right there. Now it's just amazing and damned enjoyable. Can't even call it a novel. Requires a new designation. I'm gonna call it

"A Big Beautiful Sonofabitch"

September was birthday month for me - and it turned out to be a book birthday... and the books keep coming!

The biggest, fattest hairiest deal of all was my acquisition of a Sony PRS-505 E-Reader... and I love it.

Currently finishing: Illuminatus!
next up: Anathem Neal Stephenson

Today I scored: Soft Machine, Nova Express and Ticket That Exploded at my local used book store. Been hunting for those for a while.

Just finished Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson today. Enjoyed it thoroughly, but I think it'll be a little while before continuing with the other two volumes...

So, in the meantime, my reading list consists of;

Falling Man - Don Delillo
Terrorist - John Updike
The Gum Thief - Douglas Coupland

Then maybe I'll get back to tales of vagabonds and 17th century European politics... maybe...

I'm 330 or so? pages into Infinite Jest.

Boo!

One of the only books I have ever started and never bothered to finish.

In fact...the only book I have ever given up on.

And I am almost done with "Underworld".

fwiw

4th time (possibly 5th). I love it.

I gave up on Gravity's Rainbow but may go back one day. There was a book called The White Hotel that I actually threw away, I hated it so much. And I finally clued in to what an unpleasant philosophy Ayn Rand espoused about two-thirds in to The Fountainhead (I had read Atlas Shrugged and one other before I got to it) and would have thrown it out if it hadn't belonged to a friend of mine.

I mean, I'm an elitist, but I'm not that kind of elitist.

Ha! Three weeks ago I took on my yearly quest for finally finishing Gravity's... Things got in the way and it lays again at the bottom of a new pile. Oh well.
Currently starting Murakami's Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Having already read several of those short stories before (i.e., Birthday Girl and the Year of Spaghetti) via excerpts found on the net, there's some deja-vu with those I hadn't.

Of the Baroque Cycle novels, book number two was a fast read. Lots of piracy, adventure and the swash of rapiers on bucklers. The third book, however fascinating and informative - took me forever to get through.

It was a bit of a relief to finish actually. Exhausting almost.

re:anathem- my copy arrived, or at least i had to go pick it up from post depot because it was too big to fit through letterbox. i've deliberately decided not to read it straight away, too many other things sitting longer. i had thought it would be good to have read it before signing on 15th of this month, but not going to happen.

re:baroque- i think each of them have moments where they become beautiful. though the second book could have been cut in half and i don't think you'd have missed too much. but then, the same could be said for the other two. quicksilver took me longest to read i have to say, and i went onto other books along the way.

re:never let me go- its the only one of his i've read. given the idea of the story it seems like it should be comparable to certain other books, but in the end it really isn't. its its own odd little thing i found.

re:underworld- i still have a cheap hardback copy sitting and intimdating me, i wish i'd just got it in paperback! one day i will read. honest.

re:watchmen- its a few years since i last re-read it, probably about time i did. maybe leave it to closer to the films release just to up the pressure?

re:blind willow- still got that half read, perhaps similarly the sense of deja-vu? i just struggled to get any momentum with it. i've read after dark in the meantime, and considered buying his new one about running, but figure i should finish this one first.

re:halting state- elsewhere someone compared it to spook country and suggested its better. as i hit about half way, i can see the comparison, some of the environment/tech/themes are similar. but they are very different novels, i guess halting state is funnier, probably more of a real thriller. however i think spook country is still the better written of the two.

also been reading - DMZ#5, king of thorn #4/5, and got 100 bullets #12 sitting for me to tackle.

I utterly loved every single page in the Baroque cycle. I guess i'm just a fanboy, but it seems that when the series isn't in "fast paced action" mode, it is in "showering you with insane amounts of highly interesting concepts and information" mode. I will read the cycle again, and not just once.

So, i'm looking forward to getting a copy of Anathem.

I have finished Altered Carbon, and loved it. There's a great sharpness in the central concepts of the book, as well as in the writing of the whole.

I haven't got anything to read for the moment, so i'll drop by the library tomorrow and find something new.

i think for me, the problems with the second part of the baroque trilogy wasn't that there wasn't enough action, more that it was the same action over and over again, with minor variations (places, names, etc). and again the problem with any book of that size is that its a comittment, and while i enjoy them, there is part of me thinking about the time that could be dedicated to another half dozen books instead that might be just as good.

though, in saying that, i still keep buying the damn things in hardback at the first opportunity!